User profile for user: miflo
miflo Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Time Machine creates backups from excluded folders. Tried everything

I configured TM to exclude some folders that I do not want it to backup. A few days ago, all of a sudden, it told me that there is not enough space on my backup disk (Airport Extreme with USB hard drive). I found out that it had deleted the old backups and tried to backup also the folders that I excluded.

I already did:

- deleted the entire backup hard disk using disk utility
- deleted TM preferences
- setup TM from scratch
- Moved the excluded folders to other locations and renamed it (added the folders once again to the exclude list after that, of course)
- repaired file permissions
- repaired volume after having started the system from the 10.6. install DVD.

When I start the backup after resetting it, it shows at first a correct amount of data (approx. 90 GB, which fits the real amount of data that I want it to backup). But when it reaches 100% of the 90 GB after several hours, it does not stop: It continuously adds GB by GB to both values "90 GB of 90 GB copied" in the status window. The status bar keeps showing 100%. When I stop the backup manually and look into the sparsebundle, I find all the data that I excluded before in the TM preferenes.

I have no idea what to do now. I tried a new backup setup from scratch already three times.

P.S.: Im not new to OS X and TM. I have used TM for years in 10.5 without any problems. It seems that such problems occur after the upgrade to 10.6. BTW, I did a clean install of SL, not an update from 10.5.

Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 29, 2009 2:39 PM

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14 replies
User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Dec 29, 2009 3:43 PM in response to miflo

This is quite unusual, and you've already tried the common fixes. There are a couple of additional possibilities:

One is something corrupted in OSX. Reinstalling OSX and the "combo" update (from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL959) may fix it, as it did here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2198474. Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.

If that doesn't help, there's a chance of an odd permissions problem: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2161241&tstart=0&messageID=102 40585#10240585
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User profile for user: miflo
miflo Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Dec 30, 2009 12:30 AM in response to Pondini

Thanks for the answer. Honestly, I do not want to reinstall OS X again - this takes too much time. Furthermore, I already did this two months ago due to other TM problems (it didn't create incremental backups any more). There was a time where we Mac user have been proud of not being forced to reinstall the OS all the time... I could switch back to Windows just as well.

I think it shouldn't be the common target of backup software to make you reinstall your OS every few months. Maybe the best option is to go back to 10.5 Leopard and to get rid of the still very buggy 10.6. I never had such problems at all with 10.5 and furthermore, the system was even way faster and more stable than in SL.

But at first I would like to try another backup software. Is there anything available that provides TM like features?
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Dec 30, 2009 8:03 AM in response to miflo

miflo wrote:
Thanks for the answer. Honestly, I do not want to reinstall OS X again - this takes too much time. Furthermore, I already did this two months ago due to other TM problems (it didn't create incremental backups any more). There was a time where we Mac user have been proud of not being forced to reinstall the OS all the time... I could switch back to Windows just as well.

I think it shouldn't be the common target of backup software to make you reinstall your OS every few months. Maybe the best option is to go back to 10.5 Leopard and to get rid of the still very buggy 10.6. I never had such problems at all with 10.5 and furthermore, the system was even way faster and more stable than in SL.


It's no consolation, but this is quite rare. I read at least the title of every thread in both the Leopard and Snow Leopard Time Machine forums, and other than a handful caused by a corrupted plist, have seen no more than 3 with this problem in the last year.

But at first I would like to try another backup software. Is there anything available that provides TM like features?


Not that I'm aware of, at least not free ones. See Kappy's post on +Basic Backup:+ http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Dec 30, 2009 4:54 PM in response to Midnightblues94

Midnightblues94 wrote:
Carbon Copy Cloner is Donation-ware, and is essentially the exact same thing as Time Machine.


No, it's not. They're both backup apps, but that's the end of the similarity.

CCC is most often used to make "bootable clones" of boot volumes.

You can boot and run from them, unlike Time Machine.

It usually don't keep "archive" copies of changed or deleted items, unlike Time Machine. (There is an option to do that, but you don't get anything like the TM interface or ease of restoring from them, paticularly the special handling for Address Book, Mail, and iPhoto.)

It takes much more CPU to run an update, so it's rarely practical to run more than once a day, vs. Time Machine's quick hourly backups.

Time Machine will let you restore your system to the exact condition it was in at the time of any backup, even if that's a different version of OSX. CCC won't.
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User profile for user: miflo
miflo Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Jan 5, 2010 10:27 AM in response to Midnightblues94

In the meantime I fixed the problem by re-installing the Combo update for 10.6.2. It then has been working for a few days.

But today, it deleted all my old backups and then told me that there is not enough space available. It would need approx. 150GB for about 10MB that I have "really" changed on the hard disk.

Since I have upgraded to SL, I only had problems, problems and problems. It's TM, it's the over-all performance, it's the stability of many applications... I cannot understand why Apple has not managed to fix these annoying bugs for so many months. Apple, what's going on there? Are there no researchers available for OSX since everyone is working on the iPhone?

The best way will probably be to go back to 10.5. I think it's the only solution that is available yet.
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Jan 5, 2010 10:51 AM in response to miflo

miflo wrote:
In the meantime I fixed the problem by re-installing the Combo update for 10.6.2. It then has been working for a few days.

But today, it deleted all my old backups and then told me that there is not enough space available. It would need approx. 150GB for about 10MB that I have "really" changed on the hard disk.

Since I have upgraded to SL, I only had problems, problems and problems. It's TM, it's the over-all performance, it's the stability of many applications... I cannot understand why Apple has not managed to fix these annoying bugs for so many months. Apple, what's going on there? Are there no researchers available for OSX since everyone is working on the iPhone?


First, you are not talking to Apple here. This is a user-to-user forum.

Second, several million folks are using Snow Leopard without significant problems. Whatever is going wrong on your Mac is not common. It is something in your setup. The fact that loading the "combo" update helped the TM problem is a good indication of that. Apparently, something in your installation of OSX got corrupted. The other problems you mention may have a similar cause.

It's not clear from your first post whether you did verify/repair disk (not permissions) on both your TM and internal HDs. If you didn't, do them both again.

If that doesn't help, I'd recommend reinstalling OSX from your SL disc, applying the "combo" again, then repairing permissions.

Your first post says you did a "clean" install. How did you get your data back onto your system?

The best way will probably be to go back to 10.5. I think it's the only solution that is available yet.


That's your call, of course, and not an easy transition after you've been on SL for a while.
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User profile for user: miflo
miflo Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Jan 5, 2010 2:04 PM in response to Pondini

I did all what you mentioned - even a complete re-install of 10.6. The problem is that my old MacBook also does not backup correctly when using TM. The same bugs.

It works for days, or weeks, or even months. But then something goes wrong and it is a very hard work to get it running again.

Re-installing OSX every two months is not an option. Really not. It takes at least one day to get all data back.

Of course, I do not use TM or any other cloning tool when I copy my data back to the hard disk after a reinstall of OSX. I copy files and folders manually just to make sure that I do not "reinstall" any errors as well.

TM is software that should prevent me from re-installing OSX all the time - not make me re-install OSX all the time.
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Jan 5, 2010 2:30 PM in response to miflo

miflo wrote:
I did all what you mentioned - even a complete re-install of 10.6. The problem is that my old MacBook also does not backup correctly when using TM. The same bugs.

It works for days, or weeks, or even months. But then something goes wrong and it is a very hard work to get it running again.


Just guessing, but backing-up via an Airport may be at least part of the problem, especially if you're using WIFI without a good signal. While that setup does work for some of us, it isn't too reliable for others, and doesn't work at all for some. Plus it is NOT officially supported by Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html

When it's not working well, what usually happens is the sparse bundle containing the backups gets corrupted, can't be repaired, and has to be erased, but what you're seeing could also be a result.

It's obviously rather hard to diagnose an intermittent problem.

I'd recommend backing-up to a local disk, preferably a different one than the one you're now using (you can't continue those backups anyway, as TM stores them differently). If the problems stop, then I'd try going back to the Airport, but connected via Ethernet. If that works well, then it's pretty clearly the WIFI.
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User profile for user: miflo
miflo Author
User level: Level 1
11 points

Jan 5, 2010 3:10 PM in response to Pondini

I already tried a local USB disk the time as it was ignoring the excluded folders - with the same bad result (excluded folders have all been copied to the disk)

I do the backups via ethernet, sometimes indeed by Wifi. But I am not more than 3 meters off the AE... The connection allows me to transfer 8-10 MB/s, so it's a real good 5 GHz n-Connection.
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Jan 25, 2010 10:34 AM in response to eberner

eberner wrote:
I also started experiencing the same problem running 10.6.2

Excluded files are being backed up every time.

I have repaired disk permissions, repaired the disk and I'm backing up through USB.


Which disk did you repair? Repair your TM disk, and Verify your internal HD, per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Also, do a "full reset" per #A4 there.

If that doesn't help, there's probably something corrupted in OSX. 😟

You'll need to reinstall it from your Snow Leopard Install disc, then download and install the "combo" update to get back to 10.6.2. Info and download available at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL959 Be sure to do a +Repair Permissions+ via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) afterwards.
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Time Machine creates backups from excluded folders. Tried everything

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